Traditional puddings.

[Ratatouille]

We both love prunes, since we came to France. Agen prunes are considered to be a delicacy, not a penance, Often cooked in a way involving booze of some sort and served in the very best restaurants. Not a pudding though. I suspect the neh is arest one could get would be a Breton Far
which is a batter pudding baked with prunes which is as good for breakfast as it is as a dessert.
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/far-breton

[suffolk]

Oh I love prunes ... it wasn't me who had the 'incident' ... it was a girl sitting at my table ... she had a doctor's letter saying she must be 'excused plums' but the teacher in charge said that she must eat prunes as they weren't the same thing. Even back in the 1960s some quite educated people were quite ignorant about food

[Busybee]

To my knowledge I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a prune, although I’m sure to have eaten them in mixed fruit just I wasn’t aware of the fact.

I will have to rectify, I have a feeling that some may cross my plate next week when we go on holiday, most breakfast buffets seem to have them.

BB

[StokeySue]

Our school prunes came with semolina
Still love both

Though these days I do prefer a hint of Armagnac or Pedro Ximénez with them, perhaps not at breakfast

[patpoyntz]

We love prunes, especially Agen prunes in Armagnac....bought in bottles every year on holiday. They are a very popular gift for friends and neighbours. We usually have them with rice pudding, or Delias fallen chocolate cake. When we visit friends who have a holiday home near Agen, the ending to a lovely lunch out is often when a large earthenware pot of prunes in Armagnac is passed round the tables for everyone to help themselves to.
Though not popular with everyone...when my youngest started school, I remember one of his little chums complaining that school lunches were awful, and the worst thing they got was giant currants in GRAVY!

[TeresaFoodie]

giant currants in GRAVY!

I love a tin of prunes when I can get them, and I drink the gravy. Yum! Not so long ago on heavy medication including Codeine I was offered laxatives on prescription. I declined. Give me a tin of prunes any day! I love them in porridge or in rice pudding. I haven't had prunes in Armagnac. I can imagine they would be much more refined than the regular trough of tinned peaches steeped in cheap brandy dished up by my ex 'almost' MIL every Christmas. I only had that displeasure for four years. Phew!

[Zosherooney]

Pork with prunes.... Lizzy David......

[suffolk]

I had a wonderful dish of rabbit with prunes when in Belgium some years ago ... It was delicious

[Pepper Pig]

Nigella does a very good marmalade pudding that feels traditional.

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/marmalade-pudding-cake

[earthmaiden]

I'd forgotten marmalade pudding

[suffolk]

This thread gives me the feeling that almost all hot puddings are 'traditional' and very few cold ones are ....

[Busybee]

I’m guessing that pre refrigeratation it would have been difficult to keep cold puddings cold? Even I can remember when not all homes had a fridge. So maybe hot puddings were somehow ‘easier’? Especially if you think of the traditional meat and two veg dinners which would have necessitated having the oven on, therefore use the same heat to make the pudding?

Maybe I’m overthinking this?

BB

[patpoyntz]

Traditional in my childhood was junket....at least once a week, and I still love it. Maybe this is classed as a trifle not a pudding?
Reading Busybees post, perhaps we had this often because although classed as a cold pudding/dessert, of course it is made in a warmer place than the fridge.

[suffolk]

Oh yes junket in my childhood this was put to set in a large 'cold safe' a cupboard with a mesh window in the north side of the house ... it was definitely a pudding ... not refined enough to be a dessert

[earthmaiden]

This thread gives me the feeling that almost all hot puddings are 'traditional' and very few cold ones are ....

Isn't this just a language/class thing? I was under the impression that in the 'best circles' it was done to call all sweet 'afters' pudding and that dessert covered fresh fruit (with all the correct cutlery). In more ordinary circles 'pudding' covered the hot ones and 'dessert the cold' ... and the rather common 'afters' the whole lot!

Mmmm .. junket! That was a real childhood treat - we left ours to set in the warmth of the area between oven and hotplate where the grill was and covered it with nutmeg. We ate it lukewarm. When we went to Australia they had junket tablets with fruit flavours which were added to the milk rather than liquid rennet. I still prefer plain.

As far as hot and cold puds are concerned, thinking of ex OH's family, substantial puds were seen as proper for serving at meals (I am thinking substantial midday meal in this case) where there were men present and sometimes in very hot weather. Cold things were considered more suitable for tea (High tea, not afternoon tea) or more feminine meals. DD and I used to smile at each other at the meagre tea served when we visited MIL compared to all the good things which came out when OH and DS were present

[StokeySue]

Yes I was a bit puzzled by the distinction between a dessert and a pudding, in my childhood it was a pudding course, even if it was a fruit salad or a yogurt

The word "dessert" sat on the same naughty step as "toilet" and one or two other words

[Pepper Pig]

Serviette?

[StokeySue]

Serviette?

[suffolk]

Where does 'sweet' fit in the pudding/dessert hierarchy?

It was always 'Second Course' when I was a child ....... except for the occasions when it was 'Third Course'

[Pepper Pig]

It was always “afters” in our dead common house.

[earthmaiden]

It was always “afters” in our dead common house.

... nothing wrong with a good description!

I forgot about 'sweet'. Never heard it until we moved to Norfolk.

[TeresaFoodie]

It was always “afters” in our dead common house.

Same here!

[Ratatouille]

It was always pudding in our house, whatever it was,

Did someone say fruit and yogurt? In the 50's neither would be considered as pudding and the latter was just unknown. If the men in my family had not had a proper pudding with custard they would have gone on strike. Things like trifle were for high tea on birthdays or at wedddings and funerals, preceeded by ham and pease pudding with pickled beetroot, onions, red cabbage and piccalili

My inlaws were much posher than our family, RAF officer type and all that. They ate dinner in the evening rather than lunch time as we did and they usually changed clothes so to do.

[StokeySue]

Fruit salad ( not just a piece of fruit) was definitely a pudding in our family in the sixties. We discovered yogurt in Brittany in 1962, but I was the only person who ate it

[Ratatouille]

I was looking through some of my old cook books yesterday and rediscovered one of the kids favouirtes when they were at home. Slteamed choc chip and banana pudding - with custard of course

[spottymint]

Am I the only person who can't abide hot custard?

Makes me gag too, apparently as a baby I loved it and eat loads of it... I'm getting better as the O/H loves it with anthing, sticky toffee, spotted, apple pie... I much prefer Syrup sponge with ice cream....

[Herbidacious]

This seems relevant:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42619485

[StokeySue]

This seems relevant:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42619485

Was just about to post the same!

I like a very occasional sticky toffee pudding.

[Seatallan]

I have an overwhelming urge for a marmalade steamed pud now. My mum used to make a smashing one called 'Lord Randall's Pudding'. I really must dig out the recipe.

[patpoyntz]

I think the next time I have the family here for a traditional Sunday roast, I’m going to try this pudding.....
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... de-pudding

[Ratatouille]

That looks rather good. Trouble is I have to order black treacle from the UK - unknown here as is dark moscavado sugar.

[Busybee]

Looks so good I can feel the lbs gathering on my hips!

BB

[earthmaiden]

That pudding does look good! I wonder how well the middle layer would cook?

[karadekoolaid]

We eat dessert for the same reason we eat beef, pork and mutton and for the same reason we don't eat pudding/afters, cow, pig and sheep.
French . " Desserver" - clearing up after the main course - or entree!
After 1066, the nobs were French, so that was the upper-class language (along with latin).
Us plebs spoke Inglish, mate, so pass the mushy peas, not the bleedin' petit pois!

[StokeySue]

I understood that dessert was originally the nibbly things - nuts, fruit,, things like Turkish delight etc that came after the main course, which might include a sweet course, or pudding

[earthmaiden]

Yes, I think you're right Sue. I suspect stodgy puds originated as 'peasant food' to fill hungry tummies anyway and may not have graced high class tables.

[Pepper Pig]

Stuffed baked apples were another hot pud chez Stoddart.

[Suelle]

Yes, I think you're right Sue. I suspect stodgy puds originated as 'peasant food' to fill hungry tummies anyway and may not have graced high class tables.

I think there's something in that, but many traditional puddings are also categorised as nursery food, implying that they were staples of the diet of middle and upper class children who were kept out of sight in nurseries and fed at what we would call tea-time rather than later in the evening with the adults.

One of my mother's quickest puddings was a Yorkshire pudding batter cooked around slices of apple - could be put into the oven as the main course was removed. Served with a pat of margarine to melt over it, and a spoonful or two of Demerara sugar.

[suffolk]

One of my mother's quickest puddings was a Yorkshire pudding batter cooked around slices of apple - could be put into the oven as the main course was removed. Served with a pat of margarine to melt over it, and a spoonful or two of Demerara sugar.

Ma used to make the same but with chunks of rhubarb if we were lucky a drizzle of evaporated milk would accompany it

[Seatallan]

I suspect stodgy puds originated as 'peasant food' to fill hungry tummies anyway and may not have graced high class tables.

I agree- something carried on in the Yorkshire tradition of eating Yorkshire Pud as a first course (with golden syrup)

[aero280]

I think that most of the dishes that are called “traditional” are peasant food. Something cheap and starchy with some meat, cheese, or fruit, if you had any. And if you got meat, it was probably offal. The fruit probably needed to have the mouldy bit cut off, and the cheese would be very hard or blue.

Paella is rice with bits
Pasty is pastry and potato with bits
Lancashire Hotpot is potato with bits
Haggis is oatmeal with offal.
The Italians cover pasta with whatever bits they have to hand.

The list is endless...

[Ratatouille]

Yes, I think you're right Sue. I suspect stodgy puds originated as 'peasant food' to fill hungry tummies anyway and may not have graced high class tables.

I think there's something in that, but many traditional puddings are also categorised as nursery food, implying that they were staples of the diet of middle and upper class children who were kept out of sight in nurseries and fed at what we would call tea-time rather than later in the evening with the adults.

One of my mother's quickest puddings was a Yorkshire pudding batter cooked around slices of apple - could be put into the oven as the main course was removed. Served with a pat of margarine to melt over it, and a spoonful or two of Demerara sugar.

The most documanted pudding were those cooked and served on RN ships fro the 17thC and possibly before. There would have been mutiny had they not been. Read Patrick O'Briends books or come to that Hornblower. The savoury dishes were probably awful with off meat, dried beans etc but a suet pud with whatever sweet addition was almost always possible.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4712 ... t-pud.html

As for batter Breton far is a perfect example. I make it often and it can also be served at breakfast.
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/far-breton

[Pepper Pig]

How about this one.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... ity-cloake

I feel a pudding coming on . . .

[Ratatouille]

Making that at the request of Mr R started me off on this thread.

[Pepper Pig]

So Rats, do you use whole lemons or cut them up in the way suggested? I made it once with a whole one and was distinctly underwhelmed.

[StokeySue]

Mum used a whole lemon but pierced it. The butter sauce "pond" was lovely, but we never thought the lemon itself was edible as most recipes (e.g. Jane Grigson) suggest

[PatsyMFagan]

It was always “afters” in our dead common house.

Mine too, although apart from the occasional apple pie and custard, or tinned fruit and cream on Sundays, we usually only got a main course

[Ratatouille]

I almost cut it in quarters,ie I cut a cross long ways leaving the bottom half whole. I put it into the pastry standing on it's end.